A Wakeup Call

Who Will be Calling You?

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”

-James Clear

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Traveling recently, the flight reservation system asked me to add my emergency contact information. It’s an activity many of us do with some regularity and probably give little thought to the question or answer. Have you ever wondered who might be adding your name and number to that blank field?

Maybe it’s your significant other, a parent, or your children? Could it be someone you didn’t expect?

I was listed as an emergency contact, and I had no idea.

One of my colleagues had a medical emergency while at work. By the time I arrived, paramedics were already rushing him to the hospital. The next day, I stopped by to check on him. We worked well together, but we weren’t especially close. It was a visit to check in and make sure he was doing okay.

Then I saw it.

On the whiteboard in his hospital room, among the doctor’s notes and vital signs, was my name and number. I was listed as his emergency contact.

I stared at it, speechless.

I wasn’t family, a lifelong friend, or someone he confided in regularly. Yet when he had to choose one person to rely on in a moment of need, he picked me.

That moment has stayed with me ever since. I never thought I would experience something like it again, but the impression lasted … we just never know how significant our influence might be or how significant we may be to another person.

And then years later at 4:30am, ring … ring … ring. My phone lit up my dark bedroom. Unknown number. My first instinct said let it go to voicemail.

Something told me to answer.

“Hello, boss…” The voice was familiar, quiet, quivering. “I… I’m in jail.”

It was a former employee. Different crisis. Same reason for the call.

“I didn’t know who else to call.”

He didn’t need bail money. He needed someone who would bring the right energy into the worst moment of his life. Someone who would listen without judgment. Someone who could help him slow things down when panic was taking over.

Here’s what those moments taught me:

Your influence isn’t built in big gestures. It’s built in daily deposits.

The energy you bring to ordinary moments determines whether someone reaches for you during their darkest 4:30am. The way you show up when nothing is at stake determines whether people trust you when everything is on the line.

You may never realize how much you mean to someone.
You may never know your name is written on somebody’s mental whiteboard as the person they’d call when life’s struggles hit.

But they know.

Your presence and care fill the space between your words and actions. It’s what people remember when they’re scared, overwhelmed, or lost. It’s the calm you bring into chaos. The consistency that builds trust long before it’s ever tested. It’s the reason they call you at 4:30am.

So who might list you as their emergency contact … and what will make people want to list you?

The juice you bring today will determine whether your phone rings tomorrow.

“Trust is built in very small moments.”

— Stephen Covey

Connecting this quote to the story. Becoming someone’s emergency contact doesn’t happen from moments of crisis, but through everyday, ordinary interactions where trust is quietly built long before it’s ever needed.

This week’s Chasing Influence tip: If you want to be trusted in a crisis, start by being reliable in the ordinary.